and his family moved in 1943. he served in the korean war. after his service he came back and started working in the united states post office; left that to become an insurance salesman, many years in that career and the golden gate insurance agency. he got a taste for union work while working on the negotiations team for the insurance workers of america. he was encouraged by calling of his to apply to the business management position to local 66a. he was the first african-american hired to head a union. 66a merge with local 400, and that merged to 790. he negotiated a number of city contracts and represented employees at

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discipline hearings. in 1992 he retired from 790. is a pleasure and privilege to recognize these outstanding members of san francisco and the service to our city and our county. in closing i also want to take a moment to do a personal note also on today january 15, 1967, and member the name of everett cohen, my father, was part of the squad doing a sweep to search out and destroy the enemy in vietnam. the squad was ambushed, my father was injured in the arm. a month before his twentieth birthday. later it turns out that he was participating in a historic military operation called operation cedar falls.

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thank you jeff for your service and acknowledged every man and woman who serves the military. and put their lives on the line. >> thank you supervisor cohen. supervisor farrell. >> supervisor farrell: a number of items. first of all regarding the shooting at sandy hook elementary in connecticut. this was an unfathomable event. as a parent it hit so close to home that i am amazed i never imagined it and i have had a pit in my stomach ever since. 20 students,

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four for teachers and two administrators. i have a first grader. every day 34 americans are murdered with guns during president obama's final four years in office it is estimated that 40,000 americans will be killed with guns, the same amount of people killed in vietnam. says the shooting in arizona which killed six people including a nine-year-old and seriously injured than congresswoman-- as the city we should continue to lead the way to advocate for and pass policies that protect the general well-being of the society. today i am introducing two resolutions, supporting senator dianne feinstein's assault weapon

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legislation; and a resolution supporting the sandy hook promise, born out of the event that killed those 20 children, four teachers and two other distribution. assault weapons have been used in at least 459 incidents across the country. this resolution simply states adamant support for senator and feinstein's assault weapon regulatory act; affirms our support for gun-control and affirms protection for gun owners grandfathering the legal protections they had before. one month after the tragic

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shooting in sandy hook elementary -- we are committed to preventing tragedies from happening again the prophet .we want to make our country and our community safer for max of violence. my resolution declares our support for the sandy hook promise on behalf of the families and children of san francisco. we went to an event with former congresswoman kathy gifford, and her husband, -- and now retired judge feinstein read sandy hook promise i want to read this and to record. =-this is a promise to support our families,

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our neighbors, are own with education. this is a promise lives lost. to be open to all possibilities. there is no agenda other than to make our community a safer and better place. this is a promise. to have a conversation on all the issues. conversations where listening is as important as speaking. conversations were even those with the most opposing views can debate and goodwill. this is a promise. to turn the conversations to action things must change. this is a time. this is a promise. we make to our precious children because each human life is filled with promise and we continue to be filled with unbearable pain; we choose love, belief, hope

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instead of anger. this is a promise. to make everything in our part not as a place with victims but a place where real change can be made. our hearts are broken. our spirits are not. this is a promise. as a parent i have never had anything hit so close to home as it did the other day. the second item is a hearing at a different vein to discuss and have it public and open dialogue about the cleanliness of our streets and open spaces here in san francisco. recently media outlets and concerned residents have raised many issues regarding our city's overall cleanliness. actual cleanliness and the perception that the city is improving cleanliness overall is important to improve the quality of all the residents.

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as a world-class tourist destination is important -- the city is doing a lot. the department of public works is now being run by -- who is doing a great job and this is a chance of the doubt about what is happening. this hearing will renew dialogue about the steps the city is taking so the residents can enjoy the city all the time. -- and begin to restore the public faith that we are taking all action necessary to improve the quality of life in our city. the rest we will submit. >> supervisor kim.

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>> supervisor kim: i want to thank supervisor farrell for bringing up connecticut. we recessed before the incident happened. we were moved and saddened by what occurred. for the families i cannot imagine what they are still processing through. today we sent our support. i agree with supervisor farrell that has to be movement made on gun control, even here in the city of san francisco gun violence continues to pervade our communities as many of our colleagues have mentioned. we lose the lives of young people. we can benefit from a lot of that legislative change. on a different note,

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i submitted a request for a hearing regarding the training and skill development job placement of san francisco residents in the city's growing technology sector. supervisor farrell mention the city as a partner in the effort.one of the commitments it was unheard of by many of the tech companies, the same with tax exclusion that we also did on stock compensation was that tech companies were committed on working with the city of san francisco on hiring residents from many neighborhoods that don't have access to the growing technology sector whether it is the mission, tenderloin, south of market and western addition;

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and happy to have cosponsors breed, cohen, avalos - to see what it is that we can do to partner with our private tech sector to ensure that we are opening up and creating a pipeline of jobs whether it is for our students born and raised in san francisco who might not get the type of education to be competitive for these jobs; whether it is adults that i found themselves unemployed in an economy not doing well but need additional training for these jobs. what is it that we can do to partner with the mayor's office in our tech companies to develop programs that would address three different population needs so they can

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benefit from this growing sector? we have had a remarkable growth in the technology sector. i am proud that their here in san francisco and decided to call san francisco their home. we have seen the momentum in the midmarket area as twitter and yammer and -- have moved into the area. the most important thing is a job pipeline. we want to create jobs in the city but we want to make sure that we are also helping san francisco residents be able to attain those jobs as well. it is through many of these meetings the purpose of this hearing is to find out what is now occurring with the ssf tech program, we want to get a summary of the number and demographics of the participants the technology, and the number of trainees placed in employment. and the skills and training needed for workers to participate in the technology sector. i am excited about this hearing.

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i know many of us have been talking about it and to see what the progress is been thus far, and what outcome has been gained and what we hope the outcomes will be. it is important that we do this now and that we work together on this. i am excited to have this hearing in the next few months. thank you. the rest i submit. >> supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: i have one item. today i am introducing a hearing on san francisco's new enforcement of public meters on sunday. this important that data is tracked to ensure that the stated goals of the program are met. a critical question that keeps coming up for many san franciscans is that will businesses see more customer turnover or businesses will be pushed

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away? we need to know whether muni ridership goes up, and whether the mta is fulfilling the obligation to fully inform with multilingual outreach updating signage throughout the system. i look forward to a positive constructive and informational hearing that would provide an accurate portrait of this important change in san francisco. i did want to acknowledge after we honored pat townsend for her 23 years of service, she introduced charles higgins. a look forward working with him. >> supervisor wiener. >> supervisor wiener: i have one item today but i want to

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thank supervisor campos for his leadership around the airport issue. this is a challenging one. i am supportive of this charter amendment, honoring harvey milk, not just for lgbt people around the world but for everyone. it is challenging because there are a number of leaders in our city's past and even present worthy of this honor. i want to thank supervisor farrell for calling a hearing on city in open space cleanliness. this is an important issue. we have streets and sidewalks and the right-of-way and sidewalks. we don't have the resources to maintain them. if you don't happen to have neighbors nearby to do it it is not get done.

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it amazes me what they are able to do with such limited resources but they need more. last year's budget we were able to get some additional gardener and cleaner spots and crews from dpw, it was a lot harder to put that money into the budget than it should've been. rebuilding the department of public works capacity to do cleaning and gardening should not be controversial political issue. supervisor farrell, other colleagues on the budget committee, i look forward to to working with you to reverse some of the things we have seen in recent years. that will be a high priority for me. today i am introducing a hearing

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and model reporting request directed at the mta, and the controller. specifically to give good data consistent every month, month-to-month comparison from the mta, from the analytical support from the controller about muni's serious challenges, in the impact of those challenges on the economic productivity of san francisco. having a reliable muni is a critical aspect to call ourselves transit first. we have to put our money where our mouth is. muni for decades has been chronically underfunded .

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every single year muni needs that amount or more to deliver. 100 million. riders see this deficiency everyday, systematic meltdowns where the subway fails, late runs. occurs with more regularity. we want to make sure that the public - we all have our own experiences, we hear anecdotes, it is important to have actual hard data. import for the public to see that data, and for us to see that, and to hear from our constituents so that we can build local support to fix the system.

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we have had budget budget debates; muni has not won those budget debates. the public needs to know exactly what is going on. i am requesting is that we start with a hearing at the land use and economic development committee followed by michael reports, tracking among other things following the follwing: deferred maintenance, last number i heard was 420 million dollars. i want to know that number is going up or down. i hope it is going down. the number of vehicles, light rail vehicles, coaches in the fleet versus the number of vehicles that it needs; the number of vehicles broken down that month and for each

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how long has the vehicle been out of service. we know that some railcars have been out of service for years or decades. how many missed runs occurred that month? how many significant service disruptions known as muni meltdowns have occurred? for each, what was the economic productivity lost as people are stuck on muni, late for work, missed appointments, don't get to school and don't get to carry on with their life because they are waiting, streaming to the street, walking downtown trying to get to work but unable to do so. also monthly report.

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finally muni progress on improving real-time communication with riders, whether social media or mass texting; you cannot avoid being caught up in the mess as it was no information provided. they're working on that but they have a lot of progress to make. this monthly tracking will be a dashboard of sorts. it will be helpful to the public, and to those making decisions in order to improve this critical transit system. this is not about beating up on muni. we have a lot of amazing operators and muni managers who do a very good job under difficult circumstances.

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the rest i submit. >> supervisor yee. >> supervisor yee: thank you. i would like to thank the rest of the members of the board of supervisors to allow me to be part of your efforts to improve the lives of the people in our city. colleagues, i am introducing a hearing on an issue, their personal to me and i care deeply about. i heard from many residents in district 7 that are also deeply concerned about, pedestrian safety. i would like to have mta, the planning department and the department of public health to report on the number of

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collisions and fatal collisions as well as the most dangerous intersections and district 7. i am a well aware that that is anecdotal. i will like to see the facts. i would like the transportation authority to present a priority of pedestrian safety district 7 and available funding. i look forward to constructive dialogue over the coming months and i will be working closely with committee members and city staff to continue to monitor this really important issue. i also would like to -- submit a resolution authorizing the department of public health, lagunda honda hospital and rehabilitation center

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to expend retroactively a gift of 500,000 dollars to the lagunda honda gift fund. the rest i submit. >> supervisor avalos. >> i am in the moment -- i get emotional thinking about my family being in the room, i forgot to mention i staff. my staff members don't expect that but i think the world of them. it is important that i acknowledge their great work and the great support they have given me over the years. first off jeremy pollock (sounds like) new staff member. he is great to have, working on policy in my office, a great friend of the years. last night his band the

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operators performed and we all went to see him. francis shay, raquel redonday (sounds like) three fourths of us live in district 11. jeremy pollock practices in district 11 as well. it is great that we have that focus on the ground. i want to acknowledge the support. i have a couple of items for introduction. before that i do want to thank supervisor campos for bringing forward charter amendment to allow the voters to decide on renaming san francisco airport, harvey milk international airport. for me harvey milk is in the

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air in this building and for me renaming the airport make sense. i have an in memoriam, mark anthony -- and member of the southwest community corporation, board member, he had an untimely death. he made great contributions to the lakeview neighborhood particularly spearheading the annual reunion picnic, for the past and present residents, people come from all over the country to join in the lakeview picnic.

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also part of the lakeview hall of fame. we had an event last july, carolyn tyler was there who was our keynote speaker. you don't see that very often in san francisco where you have a great part of the middle class black community coming together; i was honored to be part of that effort. mark was one of the persons who helped organize that event, gave a lot of his heart and soul to san francisco over the years. he left san francisco temporarily to go to howard university in the 1970s when she got degrees in psychology and was able to apply that in different places around the country. i want to make sure that you know that mark will be greatly missed.

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the next item i have is an ordinance, call the ordinance on conversion, demolition and merger of residential units. it's about protecting existing housing and preserving affordable housing, and rent control housing. the 2009 update to the housing element at a policies to retain existing housing and protect the affordability of the existing housing especially rental units. these updates discouraged demolition, conversion are merger of existing housing but the current .code criteria does not have preference for assisting housing or consider affordable housing. also will consider whether replacement units are provided, and whether they are of similar affordability.

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this ordinance does not change the requirements for mandatory discretionary review; this ordinance will not affect -- or any other project with a development agreement. little background, supervisors -- had considered a one-to-one replacement for the most housing but that is prohibited by the palmer versus rent control board. the planning department will soon have more current statistics as well. this language brings into conformity what our goals are around the housing element and how we can best preserved housing.